Thursday, December 30, 2010

Do Female Animals have Periods?

A friend of mine forwarded this question at me few years back. I dismissed it hastily without actually giving it a thought, and yesterday while I was caressing my house cat it popped up on my mind.

Humans are mammals, humans breastfeed their children just like any other mammals. We give birth to live offspring, we have hair on our body, etc etc. But the phenomenon of female humans discarding blood every month seems unique to Homo Sapiens alone. Or is it? If it is unique to humans only, why?
Well, to answer that we have to understand why women have periods.(Form 3 science class~~)

Image: womenshealth.gov

The menstrual cycle affects every single woman every month from puberty to the menopause. Its function is to allow women to become pregnant and regulate the hormones in the body. The womb lining is thickened in preparation for pregnancy, and the ovaries have either released eggs or are about to release them with the stimulus of mating.

Image: drthom.com

In the majority of species, oestrus(commonly called being 'in season' or 'in heat') is the only time the animal feels sexual desire, since it is the only time pregnancy can occur and it would be pointless to mate at any other time.

If a woman does not become pregnant during oestrus, the womb lining and unfertilised egg are discarded - this is menstruation, or 'having a period'.

Image: emzorpharma.com

This, however, does not happen in animals - they do not discard vast amount of blood lightly. Unlike humans, managing resources wisely is a question of life and death for animals, thus every drop of blood is precious. Instead of shedding the womb lining they reabsorb it into their bodies.

There are reports about animals discharging blood during certain period of the month, which may lead some people to suggest the animal is having a period. Well, not exactly - the animal is ready to conceive, not getting rid of its womb lining after failing to conceive - that's one vital difference between us and our mammalian friends. And the volume of blood they shed is relatively low compared to humans.

My housecat

The reason behind the difference is not known, though I think that evolution has a part to play. As we evolved, we developed ways to meet our basic needs. Invention of tools has enabled us to acquire food easily and to fend ourselves effectively. With food readily available, we no longer need to reabsorb the womb lining as a mean of saving precious resources because survival is guaranteed even when we discard the blood - it's just a piece of my humble opinion.

Image: welkerswikinomics.com

So for all female readers out there; the next time you're out to buy the menstrual pad, buy one for your bitch too.

It's not due to evolution, it's the way God made us! Psalms 139: 13. For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. 14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

If this difference os thoroughly analyzed, this becomes one more evidence that homo sapiens are not evolved from other mammals. And this is yet another utter failure of evolution story.

Animals also have abundant amount of food available on the earth like just like humans. This is not the reason of animals not menstruating.

Humans are created as other mammals do by the way Allah willed them to be created with Great justification of animals not menstruating and humans do. If evolution really occures, then animals should have menstruated and humans womb lining should have absorbed in the body demanding a cleaner and facilitating life to the humans than animals.

Evolution means change over time. We are similar in ways to our ancestors but different in others because of evolution. Our lives are different from those of other animals, so we have adapted to our particular environment and lifestyle over time. If we were exactly the same as all the other animals, there would be no evolution and there would only one species. I don't know if the author's food theory is correct but while it may seem there is an endless amount of food, land and resources for animals, that is not as true as it seems. Each bit of resource is usually used to its fullest and animals have to compete with each other to gain access to those resources. There is only enough to sustain a certain number of animals and those who are out-competed do not survive. In the rich parts of the world, this is not as much of a problem because we are able to alter our environment through agriculture to produce enough food for everyone. The resources on Earth are not unlimited, however. If our population and rate of consumption of goods continues to grow, we will one day become limited by our resources as well; there will not be enough for everyone.